Orignally designed as an assault glider for the USAF the Fairchild C-123 Provider was a widely utilized medium transport which was capable of operating in short or unprepared airstrips. The C-123 had a rather turbulent development history: it was first conceived by Chase Aircraft and later taken over by famed industrialist Henry Kaiser before political issues ended up assinging the project to Fairchild. Still, the conventional high-wing C-123 became a highly valued asset during the Vietnam War where it obtained distinction for its ruggedness and reliability. In that conflict they were used mostly as troop and cargo carriers but also as night attack gunships and, most notoriously, as defoliant sprayers carrying the controversial Agent Orange. C-123 remained on hand until the 1980s with ANG units and some being used up to today by small freight companies. Other operators inlcuded Cambodia, El Salvador, Laos, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, South Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, and Venezuela.

The original prototype XG-20 glider would eventually lead to the XC-123, first flown on 14 October 1949. Production orders followed for the first C-123B units. It was then decided to add auxiliary turbojets beginning with the C-123J (Fairchild J-44s) and later the C-123K (GE J85s). Other variants included the HC-123B rescue platform for the USCG, the UC-123B and K defoliant sprayers, the NC-123B flare ship for night operations, and the AC-123K (or NC-123K) attack gunship with a lengthened nose housing forward looking infrarer (FLIR) sensors, laser rangefinders, and could drop cluster bombs.